For local small businesses, one of the keys to search engine marketing is making sure that if a customer is searching for your business, they can find it easily. This means making sure that your business has a regional listing in each of the major search engine's local directory, like Google+ Local or Bing Local. Customers are also using apps and social networks like Foursquare and Yelp to find, rate and review local businesses.

Yelp released an update today for their iPhone app that allows users to see a business' specialties and history, direct from the owner. This is version 6.4.0 for the iOS app, and also includes better search functionality with autocomplete, as well as updated reviews and other bug fixes.

While the Yelp review system is still quite questionable, this update does do a good job of giving small business owners an opportunity to further educate consumers on who they are and what they can do. The image to the right is a screenshot of the Yelp listing for Kim Cheese restaurant in Chesterfield, MO, a Korean-fusion new concept, and they've already started to fill in their Specialities section.

Foursquare, the location-based social network that lets you check in to businesses, has released an update to their app and overall service. They have implemented a unique Foursquare scoring system that ranks businesses in an effort to show you how popular a business is. According to their blog and the update:

With this update, we've made finding the best place even easier.

Now when you're searching for somewhere to go in Explore, you'll see a score next to the name of a place. It's our way to give you a quick sense of how much people love it.

Yelp released another udpate to their mobile app today, version 6.1.0. In it, Yelp states:

"We know you guys are super bummed about the cancelling of Jersey Shore, so we thought we'd cheer you up with a hot new update from your friends at Yelp."

The update includes:

• Leave comments as you check in for your friends to see
• Add tips more easily right after checking in
• Check in and leave check-in comments from your iPad
• Lots of bug fixes and performance improvements

Yelp is a social network, like Foursquare, where users are encouraged to check-in wherever they're at. Yelp can be used to find restaurants, entertainment and other forms of businesses within a user's area.

The social networks Klout, Foursquare and Yelp all released minor updates to their mobile apps. 

Klout for iPhone

Version 1.6

This update includes:

Yelp, the social network for finding and sharing location activities, has released version 6.0.0 of their mobile app. The update description states:

This update is literally filled to the brim with awesomeness. We're not joking -- we had to get an intern to stand on the top of it just to get it zipped up and shipped to the App Store.